The last week has been exceptionally mild with early morning temperatures around +5 degrees Celsius and warming up to the mid teens in the afternoons.
Combined with brilliant sunshine and birdsong all around, the consensus is that spring has well and truly arrived on the Rhine Delta.
My first encounter this morning was with a pair of Black Kites busy nest building. At least the female was busy collecting roots from a nearby plowed field.
The male was positioned high up in an adjacent tree just watching the progress and occasionally chasing off the odd, trouble-making carrion crow. In the same area I must have counted at least 4 pairs of Black Kites, all busy nest building, each in its own isolated, tall tree.
Ken Billington
Ken, a scientist by training held various management positions in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries during his professional career, enabling him to travel extensively throughout Europe, the Americas, North Africa, Asia and Japan. Ken has always been a keen photographer and bought his first telephoto lens 10 years ago. This was the beginning of his interest in bird photography. Since then he has also become an active supporter of birding and wildlife conservation.
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